Sussex Cardiac Centre, Audit Department

"Audit is about improving practice, the data we collect is extremely important to the Cardiac Centre and informs the way we care for our patients. If a department does not know how it is performing it is difficult to focus on how to make improvements.  We have a duty to patients to ensure that any data held is kept confidential and complies with current legislation.”

	Gaynor Dixon Business and Audit Manager Cardiac Department The Royal Sussex County hospital Eastern Road Brighton BN2 5BE E-mail: Gaynor.dixon@bsuh.nhs.uk Phone: 01273 696955 Ext. 7836

Gaynor Dixon was formerly a Nursing Sister for the Intensive and Cardiac Care Units in Brighton.
Having co-ordinated the UK Heart Attack Study, and Heart Attack Action! along side Dr R Norris, she is now Business and Audit Manager for the Sussex Cardiac Care Centre.

	Gemma Winder MINAP Co-ordinator Cardiac Department The Royal Sussex County hospital Eastern Road Brighton BN2 5BE E-mail: Gemma.Winder@bsuh.nhs.uk

 
Gemma Winder has worked as a Nurse on the cardiology ward since March 2003.
Since becoming the ward lead for the myocardial infarction national audit programme (MINAP), she is now the coordinator for MINAP within the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

The Sussex Cardiac Centre has developed a culture of data collection, and with careful design of our own of data sets we can answer local questions and comply with Department of Health directives.

   http://2007ratings.healthcarecommission.org.uk/healthcareproviders.cfm

We regularly submit nationally required data to the Central Cardiac Audit Data and information regarding this can be found at;

   http://www.ic.nhs.uk/our-services/improving-patient-care/heart-disease

Annually a forward plan for audit activity is developed, examining multiple aspects of care delivered to our cardiac patients. This involves all members of the multidisciplinary team, i.e. Consultant Cardiologists, Consultant Surgeons Doctors, Cardiac Physiologists, Heart Failure Nurses, Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurses, Cardiac Pharmacists, Cardiac Research, Arrythmia Nurse, and Cardiac Radiographers.  

Over time the Sussex Cardiac Centre has developed, and we have seen the Centre expand effectively and efficiently with more procedures whilst still maintaining high standards of care.

Fig.1. shows the numbers of cases of Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI) by financial year since the Centre opened in 1999.

Figure 1.

Data for the current year shows that we will continue to perform in the region of 1400 cases.

The Sussex Care Centre Network has both local and visiting Interventional Consultant Cardiologists who undertake PCI procedures.

Figure 2.

The visiting consultants names in the above graph also perform PCIs in their own hospitals; therefore these numbers do not accurately represent their total yearly PCI cases.

We are currently following up longer term health status of our patients who have undergone PCI, by sending a letter and questionnaire to them at one year, in response we have received many positive replies from patients, these being typical examples;

‘Dear Dr de Belder, Thank you for taking such good care of me on Friday ……You have a very good team in the Laboratory who deal with a potentially stressful situation in a warm and understanding atmosphere…….. I was extremely grateful to your secretary…………The Lewes Ward back up was good too.’

‘Dear Sirs,…………My strength and VITALITY have returned in very large measure and I am absolutely delighted and at the same time highly indebted to you all……………….more power to your elbow.’